We are setting off to start our new life in Melbourne, Australia.
With us on this adventure is as little as we could imagine bringing to a
new home halfway around the world. Two bags for each of us to last until
our half container pod of remaining essentials (and some not so) are set
to arrive 4-6 weeks after we do.
On a steel gray January morning we bid adieu to Alley 24, our home
for nearly four years, tossed our two bags into the Subaru for the last
time and drove up to Ballard to crash in our friend’s 4’ by 7’ TV room.
This will be our cozy accommodations for four nights until our flight on
the 20th. Sometime in that span we’ll be selling our trusty steed and
further shedding some last possessions that missed the boat but can’t be
justified in the checked luggage.
Now that we are unemployed, transient couch surfers the enormity of
the move must be faced. No more second guessing the decision, no more
dreamy discussions. Now just real, live logistics – an AirBnB, work
visas, money transfers, international shipping manifestos, packing
re-packing our luggage.
We’ll be there soon and once we arrive we’ll do our best to document
our adventure here so feel free to follow along as we share the
highlights of our life Down Under.
Arrival in a Strange Land
22 January 2015 Melbourne, Vic
A full twenty-four hours after leaving Seattle – via our scheduled
Los Angeles stop and our unscheduled Sydney one – we arrived in
Melbourne. Immigration and customs took a matter of minutes, either a
nod to Australian efficiency or, possibly, apathy. Our journey to the
taxi stand took us outside and into the heat, a very welcome 36C (97F)
heat. As our cab headed into the city our fatigue and exhaustion melted
away as our new home came into view out of the car windows. We had made
it. Our new lives here were a blank canvass waiting for us to fill them
with memories of a lifetime. This blew a strong wind into our sails;
ready we were to see what this continent has to offer.
After a few wrong turns down some tricky one-way alleys, our driver
found our AirBNB flat (apartment) and set us free. We dumped
our luggage, changed into our bathers (swimsuits) and headed
down to the St. Kilda beach to showcase the whitest skin in all of Oz
(Australia), perhaps the Southern Hemisphere. In the mid-arvo
(afternoon),our hunger pangs drove us from the beach to Fitzroy
Street for a snack. We cashed in our gift certificate to Milk the Cow, a wine and cheese
shop near the beach. All manner of fancy spreads and cuts were brought
our way; all consumed in short order. We retired for our first night
down under, but not before catching a few matches of The Tennis (The
Australian Open) on The Tele (TV).
Settling In
23 January 2015 St. Kilda, Vic
On our first full day we dove right into the culture with a lazy cup
of morning tea ([Twinnings] (https://twinings.com.au/), of course) on the deck. The
cool, marine breeze of the early morning quickly gave way to summer
heat. Inspired to experience this new place we took a long walk along
the Bay
Trail down to Point Ormond. This is a truly fantastic trail.
Kilometers upon kilometers of pricey coast real estate dedicated solely
to public use. We will undoubtedly spend considerable time moving to and
fro on non-vehicular thoroughfare. Bikes must be purchased and soon.
Andy is keen on rollerblades; Erin not so much so.
The walk back was warm; the heat, the sweat, the sun on our skin all
so wonderful after the last few months in wet and cool Pacific
Northwest. We live here now.
The Tennis
24 January 2015 Melbourne, Vic
For three weeks in late January and early February all eyes – in the
tennis world at least – are on Melbourne and the Australian Open. Or, more affectionately
referred to here on the ground as The Tennis . The cultural
immersion program we had set for ourselves dictated that we attend.
On a gorgeous, sunny Saturday with temperatures near 30C (86F) we
arrived early, as did the rest of the city. Tickets to the two main
courts were sold out so we settled for ground passes. A ground pass
allows access to all other venues but main courts, including the very
large Hisense Arena. Our lack of planning did mean we’d miss Venus
Williams’ match; however, our early arrival permitted a viewing of
Serena practicing from up close, so not all was lost. It should not go
unmentioned that the lines to enter the cultural events – the beer and
wine gardens – stretched on to the far reaches of the grounds as
Melbourne’s 20-somethings shook off last night’s hangover and queued up
for another run at it. No prom or gala in America had anything on this
scene.
Serena’s practice session sated our patriotic hunger; next on to
Hisense for some live matches. Prior to the opening 11am match seats
were plentiful. As rookies do, we made a rookie mistake and sat in the
glaring sun, amazed at why such good seats were available when less
optimal ones (shaded) were taken. A few hours later, the place was
packed and we were sweating through our clothes, the full power of
antipodal sun baking our pale northern bodies. We endured two hours of
roasting to see the Spaniard, Muguruza, down Bacsinszky of Switzerland
in a hard fought women’s singles match. A welcome relief as the shade
enveloped us for match two. Here, the 8th ranked Montenegro-Canadian
Milos Raonic used his 220+ km/h serve to breeze by the scrappy Benjamin
Becker of Germany.
The grounds were throbbing full at this point and, needing food and
drink, we called it a day and left for home. Our hunger and thirst
pulled us into a pit stop at the Royal Croquet Club’s (RCC) off-site
Aussie Open extravaganza…basically a massive beer garden with food
trucks, croquet courts and a DJ spinning house music. Attendance was
thin – it was early – but judging by the size of the beer stands it
would become a righteous rave later in the evening. Still jet-lagged and
a good decade older than the intended demographic we could not muster
the resolve to go on a day-long drinking spree and, after a delicious
snack and two Hahn Lights, made our way home. Cultural immersion
complete for today.
Market Day
25 January 2015 Melbourne, Vic
The Queen Victoria Market is both a
tourist trap full of fake Australian Outback hats and crocodile wallets
as well as fully functional grocery store and mercantile. In what other
seven hectare space upon the face of this earth can you buy a pallet of
kangaroo pelts, powerful mystery crystals, Footie gear, a 55-gallon drum
of raw almonds, Crest toothpaste, collectible dolls, antique hunting
knives and a dozen fresh duck eggs? Any form of great quest can be
outfitted from here; same too for fulfilling the needs of most eccentric
among us. There is truly something for everyone. We bought none of the
above, instead spending most our time investigating the widest variety
of cured meats we’d ever seen.
[Erin] Being from Seattle, my expectations of coffee are high.
Melbourne’s reputation as having a world class coffee culture proceeds
it. In the three days we’ve been here, I’ve found it to be as promised
and have been been gleefully sampling from a variety of new favorite,
local cafes. Market Lane
Coffee has a corner shop in the Queen Vic Market and since I wasn’t
really sure what a flat white or a long black would end up as, I ordered
a cappuccino like a pro, right up until I tried to pay for a $4 coffee
with two 20 cent coins. (For some reason the smaller coins are larger
amounts here). After Googling “long black” I decided it would be the
closest to my Americano order back home and I can avoid looking like a
complete dumbass next time. I am also adding this bit of information to
save you all from Googling “long black” in the workplace.
With Market bags in hand and caffeine needs met, we took the tram
back to our temporary home in St. Kilda for a sunny lunch on our patio.
At some point we will stop acting like this is a vacation and get on
with the details of finding a permanent dwelling, communicating with
family, preparing for work, being responsible adults, but not quite
yet…after all, we are still wearing fresh, clean clothes from our
suitcases. Life doesn’t really start until laundry calls.
’Stralia Day
26 January 2015 Burwood, Vic
Australia Day celebrates the 1788 landing of the British First Fleet
at Sydney Cove. We expected something like an Australian Fourth of July
extravaganza. However, on account of souring public opinion over the
ensuing treatment of the Aboriginal peoples, the reality of the holiday
is something closer to a modest Columbus Day barbecue. As luck so had
it, an old classmate of Erin’s had recently moved to Melbourne and had
extended to us an invite to a afternoon party out in Wattle
Park, east of the city. On the (not to scale) Melbourne tram map, it
looked close enough. Ignorant of the speed, or lack thereof, of the tram
system we jumped aboard the 16 Tram headed east then north through
St. Kilda East, Balacava, Caulfield North, Malvern, Kooyong and then
Hawthorn where we transferred to the 70 Tram whereupon we crawled
through Hawthorn East, Camberwell, Surrey Hills and finally into
Burwood, home to the Park of Wattle. Along the way we were overtaken by
many cyclists, scooters, rickshaws, jitneys, wheelchairs, mums with
prams, stray dogs; really anything wheeled or anyone particularly fleet
of foot was bound to pass us eventually.
Ninety or so minutes later we arrived. The beer that we purchased at
the beginning of our journey was now fully the temperature of the
ambient air. The small fete was enjoyable, a good chance to meet some
local people and test our new land’s ability to throw a bash. Marooned
out here in the burbs, the only economically sensible thing to do was to
ride the same slow pony back to town…at least we knew what to expect
this time. We rewarded ourselves for our arduous travels with some of
the world’s greatest frozen yogurt, Yo-Chi. To walk off these excess
calories, we ambled down to the beach to watch the sun dip below the
gentle waves of Port Phillip Bay.
Back to Work
27 January 2015 University of Melbourne, Vic
The fun had to end eventually, I was down here for a job after all.
Mind you I wasn’t headed to the salt mines or anything resembling
difficult physical labor, but coming back to a schedule and being
responsible to an employer was a unwelcome change nonetheless.
I arrived to the brand new Melbourne School of Design (MSD) building
and my 9:30 appointment to find
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Beach Boxes
30 January 2015 Brighton, Vic
When not outside basking in the glorious January weather, we are busy
on Domain.com.au searching for
a place to live. This either means walking or taking the trams/trains to
different neighborhoods around the city until we are exhausted or
sunburned, often both. Our standard operating procedure once in such a
condition is to find refuge and relief in a gelato or frozen yogurt
shop. I dare you
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In Search of a Home
1 February 2015 Melbourne, Vic
We are still vagabonds, living off of takeout at our small, but
comfortable AirBnB in the heart of St. Kilda. We put in an application
for the small brick homes in the photo below. There are no guarantees
here in this ‘lottery for a rental home’ system. It is just one of
hundreds that we’ve looked at online and one of a handful that we’ve
inspected and applied for. We feel like we have a good chance here
because
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Not So Super Bowl
2 February 2015 Prahran, Vic
9am Monday morning and we are headed to a bar. A friend of a friend
had invited us out to the College Lawn Hotel in Prahran neighborhood.
Entrance was pricey, but we did get all you could drink beers and wines
and a wide variety of free bar foods. Upon arrival, we noticed the 12th
man flag We had made a good choice. The place filled
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How Ya Goin
4 February 2015 Albert Park, Vic
After many tours, followup emails and countless hours scouring online
listings, we finally secured a place to live. It is a wee Victorian
cottage in a neighborhood called Albert Park. It is a quaint, but
upscale little area with adequate, but not hip, amenities and,
importantly, is only a walk or short bike ride to the beach and a direct
tram ride away from
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Ikea-a-thon
8-9 February 2015 Richmond, Vic
We now have a house. It is filled with exactly nothing as all we own
here are the bags we brought on the plane (and the various suncreens
Andy has hoarded in the past two weeks) and those are still at the
Airbnb we have for a few more days. So we went shopping. Furniture
shopping – the seventh level of hell for one of us. In fact, Andy might
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Moving In
12 February 2015 Albert Park, Vic
This entire blog post could be about nothing more than the series of
minor failures that we have had in the past week while moving into our
new home. Instead, we will channel the positive and enlighten you with
the few, but crucial wins we have had secured. To begin, we are now the
proud owners of
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A Downtown Walkabout
14 February 2015 Melbourne, Vic
To celebrate St. Valentine (Valentino in the large Italian sector of
Melbourne) we explored our city – a long date filled with many cultural
institutions and ice creams. We began with a trip to the State Library
and concluded at Federation Square, connecting these two iconic places
via the least efficient
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A Slice of Home
21 February 2015 Melbourne, Vic
In need of a vacuum, a year’s worth of toilet paper, three liters of
barbecue sauce, a kilo and half of haloumi and several other bulk items
that can only be moved with a pallet jack, we took a short tram ride to
Costco Australia, conveniently located just north of downtown Melbourne.
Rumor has it that the Melburnians were so pleased with the arrival
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Furniture and F1
25 February 2015 Albert Park, Vic
Big week for us. We bought a grill (barbie), our couch and
desk were delivered (installed incorrectly) and our internet was finally
installed (with speeds near that of Andy’s early 2000s dorm room…).
After tethering our cell phones to our computers in order to get work
done and sitting on the floor for 2 weeks, this was a big improvement.
That said, we are coming
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A Walk in the City, A Walk in the Bush
2 March 2015 Melbourne + Belgrave, Vic
We are getting to know our new city bit by bit and day by day.
Whether by suggestions from new friends, places we have read about on
local websites or curiosities stumbled upon while lost, we end up on
weekly field trips to discover little city gems. Whilst wandering the
city, one of the most pleasant surprises is volume and diversity of
street art in Melbourne. This weekend we decided to specifically
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Classroom Debut
8 March 2015 Parkville, Vic
The students returned to campus this week, which meant the
peacefulness Andy had been enjoying at work was suddenly shattered. It
was easy to forget hat a scene a thriving 40,000 student campus could
become. Added to this was the fact that we were housed in a brand new
building, the likes of which the students hadn’t seen yet
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Experimental Cooking
18 March 2015 Parkville, Vic
[Erin] Growing up, whenever my mom would try a meal outside of her
wheelhouse, she would always preface the meal with the descriptive
warning that it was ‘experimental’. Carrying this over into my adult
life, I have begun to refer to Andy’s enthusiastic use of flavors and
discretionary attention to recipes as ‘experimental cooking’ and now
…
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Mornington, Day 1
20 March 2015 Mornington Peninsula, Vic
For Erin’s upcoming birthday we decided to finally leave the comforts
of the big city and venture into rural Victoria – the Mornington
Peninsula to be precise. To do so meant renting a car and driving. Not
just any driving, but driving on the left hand side of the road…or
basically unlearning everything that you’ve been consciously (and
sometimes not so) doing for the past
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Mornington, Day 2
21 March 2015 Mornington Peninsula, Vic
Our last minute lodging at the Lindenderry Farm and Vineyards proved
restful and we woke before sunrise to head to the Mornington Peninsula
Hot Springs. With over twenty mineral pools to dip and soak in, we
thought it would be the perfect morning activity. As the first people
through the door, hustled up the hill to stake our claim in the aptly
named Hilltop pool. Doing so enabled us to catch sunrise
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Bachelor Life
31 March 2015 Albert Park, Vic
[Andy] A few weeks ago, you heard about Erin’s daily routine of
one-pot cooking, sun-bathing and trips to the market. With Erin in
Hawaii and me living the bachelor life, I’ll provide some insight into
my own daily exploits. I teach on Tuesday and generally have meetings,
class prep and other administrative duties
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Botanical Gardens
5 April 2015 Melbourne, Vic
The city is a ghost town. It is Easter weekend, a national holiday,
and it would appear that most of our neighborhood and a fair bit of the
city are off for a final summer’s weekend someplace else. That included
the shop owners and retail clerks. As everything was closed up tight, we
walked to the
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Grampians National Park
6-7 April 2015 Halls Gap, Vic
Toward our effort to explore our new state of Victoria, we took a
quick two-day trip out for some bushwalking in the Grampians
National Park. The Grampians Mountain Range, or Gariwerd as known to
the local Aboriginals, is a photogenic sandstone range that runs
north-south cutting through the Victorian plains.
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Fall and Footy
16-18 April 2015 Melbourne, Vic
Fall is definitely here, as the non-indigenous, deciduous trees are
all beginning to drop their leaves. After a lifetime in the Northern
Hemisphere, it is really hard to condition yourself to think of April as
being fall. We’ve both continually been referring to the upcoming months
as ‘summer’, though they’ll be anything but as our local friends are
keen to remind us. People here have assured us
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Farm Life
1-3 May 2015 Ballarat, Vic
This weekend we were invited out to visit our friends Brooke and
Steve who are ‘farmsitting’ for a month out in the country. The farm is
just outside of the town of Ballarat and although it seemed a world away
from the city, it only took about an hour’s drive when we left midday
Friday. After an afternoon tour of the farm, we drove into Ballarat to
stock up on groceries and drinks. Prior to the first gold strike,
Ballarat was
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A Day of Culture
10 May 2015 Melbourne, Vic
Our well-laid plans to hike in the mountains east of the city were
dashed due to storms. We pivoted and instead embarked on an urban hike
to try to get to know our city a little better. Andy kept on calling
this a ‘Day of Culture’ but since I am writing this blog post, I will
note that a ‘Day of walking really far’ would have been just as apt.
From our home in Albert Park, we trekked first to the National Gallery
of
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Sunshine Coast
23 May 2015 Alexandra Headlands, Vic
As an early birthday present, Erin planned a short trip for us to
Noosa and the Sunshine Coast – a set of beachfront communities about an
hour north of Brisbane. We caught a Thursday afternoon flight out of
Melbourne, which was quite bumpy due to the developing thunderstorms
along coast. As we approached the landing, our pilots hit the gas and
pulled out of it a few moments before impact and then circled
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Noosa
25 May 2015 Noosa, Qld
We left our Alexandra Heads accommodation early on the slow bus bound
for Noosa. The trip – cheap and comfortable – follows the windy road all
up the coast. We stopped every ½ mile or so to pick up a barefooted
surfer or two along the way. Scenic, slow and crowded by the time we
arrived in downtown Noosa. Noosa Heads is a very quaint,
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A Long Awaited Delivery
28 May 2015 Albert Park, Vic
After five months at sea – well more like two months at sea and three
months in customs and port storage facilities – our shipment of
household goods finally arrived. And just 72 hours prior to our flights
back to the U.S. for the month of June. The boxes looked like they had
been kicked, dragged and thrown the entire 8,186 miles, but miraculously
nothing, minus
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Winter in Melbourne
27 June 2015 Albert Park, Vic
[Andy] I returned from our hectic U.S. trip to depths of Melbourne
winter. A calm and sunny 55 degrees. As a native of the upper Midwest I
remember late spring/early summer days that weren’t this nice. Yet, a
good portion of the locals took the opportunity to don their North Face
puffy jackets and knit, woolen hats. Perhaps overkill, but I do love the
smell of the wood fireplaces burning in our
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Melbourne from the Sky
20 July 2015 Melbourne, Vic
[Erin] I flew back to Melbourne on July 8th, prepared to keep myself
busy with work until Andy got back on the 26th. One Cryptolock Virus,
one trans-Pacific voyage for my computer and one panic attack later I
found myself without a laptop, feeling completely un-tethered from
society. The only silver lining of sending my laptop back to the States
for resurrection was that with the
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Heide Art Museum
22 July 2015 Heidelberg, Vic
[Erin] Earlier this week, on a day that promised to have 0% chance of
rain, I took a bike ride out of town to visit the Heide Museum of Modern
Art. A 20 kilometer bike ride from the city, the Heide sits within 15
acres of parklands. The land was purchased by John and Sunday Reed in
1934. And what was initially their home of a farm house, (Heide I) and
kitchen
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Blind Date
10 August 2015 Frankston, Vic
One perk of moving to a large, international city is that many of our
friends, family and colleagues have connections here in Melbourne. As a
result, from time to time we get set up for, what could only be called,
blind dates. This Sunday was such an occasion. One of Erin’s childhood
friends had studied in New Zealand and knew a girl who happened to be
living
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Geelong
25 August 2015 Geelong, Vic
We each had a busy past week preparing for new adventures; Andy with
baseball tryouts for the Port Melbourne Mariners, (serendipitously
enough our local team), and me with my first teaching experience at the
University. I was hired as a teaching assistant, or a Tutor as they are
referred to here, for a Site Planning and Design studio through the
University Landscape Architecture program.
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Footy Friday
5 September 2015 Melbourne, Vic
Eric
arrived today, our first visitor from back home. For his first full day,
we hit up the South Melbourne Market for a lunch of Yum Cha (Dim Sum),
Oysters and Meat Pies. We then took a long, leisurely stroll into
downtown, winding through Melbourne’s famous alleyways, eventually
grabbing a few beers from a small café. There were many choices of
alleyway bars, but we were lured in by the large Italian man who smelled
strongly of coconut and vanilla and who offered us
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Great Ocean Road, Day 1
6 September 2015 Apollo Bay, Vic
The
offer of a free upgrade at the rental car office is always a good omen
for a road trip. The ‘upgrade’, in this case, meant getting handed the
keys to metallic green Holden Commodore Sport Edition. If you are
anything other than an Aussie or absolute car wonk, you probably have
never heard of Holden. It is an oft-maligned domestic brand. Think
Pontiac not Cadillac. Pulling out the Avis garage, strange noises
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Great Ocean Road, Day 2
7 September 2015 Warrnambool, Vic
[Erin] We began day 2 of our Great Ocean Road trip in search of more
koalas. Slow and seemingly high, these marsupials are 70% shanks, 20%
ears and 100% adorable. My maths don’t add up, but the description
should at least give you an overall understanding of the koala bear
cuteness. We understood the ‘bear’ descriptor after seeing these little
guys in action (or inaction), but I would probably characterize them as
part Ewok, part hamster.
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Heide Sculpture Garden
10 September 2015 Bulleen, Vic
Eric and Erin ventured out to the Heide Museum of Modern Art for a
late lunch in the museum’s café and then toured the massive sculpture
garden discussing which pieces we liked best. After hearing “I could
make that” one too many times from Eric, they both settled on the airy
and geometric volume create out of welded rebar as the top
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Mornington Day Trip
12 September 2015 Portsea, Vic
The weather called for 0% chance of rain so we decided to drive down
to the Mornington Peninsula for the day. Naturally it started raining on
us as we reached our first stop at the Cranbourne Royal Botanical
Gardens. These gardens were magnificent. We can only imagine that the
designers that got to work on this job were in heaven. Within the
featured Australian Garden, there were twenty or so individual
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And they are off…
14 September 2015 Flemington, Vic
Horse racing in Victoria still maintains a measure of cultural and
social importance. Or, in other words, still offers members of polite
society a chance to dress up and remind themselves that they are still
members of polite society. The horses themselves are a bit of an
afterthought. Being two immigrants and a tourist, we first checked the
style guide – no jodhpurs, cravats,
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Last Hurrah (for Eric)
16 September 2015 Halls Gap, Vic
Eric’s time with us was quickly coming to an end. A successful first
time for us hosting a fellow Yank. With the glorious spring weather, we
snuck in one last little trip – a one night excursion to the Grampians –
before Eric was set to return to America. We had been to the
Grampians before but still had plenty to explore.
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Perth, then North
3-4 October 2015 Perth(ish), Western Australia
While our west coast trip was meant to get us out of the city, we did
dedicate a morning to a small walkabout in central Perth. It is a nice
city, complete with multiple pedestrian zones, flashy new buildings and
all the requisite retail chains, high end restaurants and tourist shops.
And when we say ‘nice’, we are hinting at
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Rotto
4 October 2015 Rottnest Island, Western Australia
While most of Australia was making its way to Melbourne to watch the
Australian Football League Grand Finals, (the Aussie Superbowl), we were
happily tucked into our small AirBnB in Fremantle, a suburb of Perth.
After an evening of exploring town we booked morning tickets on the boat
to
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The Race that Stops a Nation
4 November 2015 Melbourne, Victoria
Tuesday was Melbourne Cup Day. It is the biggest race day of the
8-day Spring Carnival and a public holiday for all, except us lowly
University employees. This may seem a bit excessive for a horse race,
but this is a country where gambling is as much of
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Things I’m Loving about Melbourne
17 November 2015 Melbourne, Victoria
ART & DESIGN EVERYWHERE
From government commissioned graffiti to land sculptures to temporary
installations, this city supports art that will amaze you and engage
you. Also, I’m pretty sure it is someone’s full time job to cover our
neighborhood sidewalks with cheery chalk drawings.
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